The Rich Like Their iPhone & BlackBerry Apps

The so-called idle rich aren’t really idle – they’re busy playing games and surfing the Web on their iPhones and BlackBerrys.

These days, with record unemployment rates and determined penny-pinching, the Luxury Institute surveyed wealthy consumers regarding their mobile lifestyles. The survey, whose respondents have an average household income of $332,000 and net worth of $3.3 million, found that the higher the income and wealth, the more they take advantage of all that these advanced mobile devices have to offer. For instance, individuals worth at least $5 million are twice as likely as their less-wealthy counterparts to play games and watch or listen to downloaded content.

Checking weather forecasts (68%), getting driving directions (58%) and finding nearby businesses (58%) are the top mobile Web activities for the folks in this bracket. Not surprisingly, checking the financial markets also ranked up there (48%), as did finding movie times (45%) and getting sports scores (45%).

Join Baratunde Thurston (left), The Onion’s Director of Digital and author of How to Be Black, for an entertaining look at creative social media campaigns in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. Other speakers include Morin Oluwole (Facebook), Tim Devane (bitly), and SocialTimes' writer Devon Glenn.   Register now.